House - early medieval

The National Monuments Service's description

Fifteen house sites dating to the tenth and eleventh centuries AD have been recovered in excavation of the upper levels of the great passage tomb mound. Of these nine were on the lower slopes of the mound and largely on the fill of the lower fosse of the rath (ME019-030040-). Five were on the summit of the mound, around the periphery of the nineteenth century quarry, and only one medieval house site, No. 15, was located NE of the main passage tomb and immediately S of Tomb 15. Five iron, bronze and enamel working areas have also been identified. The houses were generally rectangular in plan, in a number of cases with rounded corners, and most had paved stone floors. Their dimensions varied from 6-12m in length and 3.50-6.25m in width. Structural details were confined to the surviving portions of the bases of the drystone perimeter walls.
This is medieval house 1, located just inside the kerb at the entrance to the W tomb, and it is one of three in the area along with Souterrain 1. After the abandonment of a small paved area and associated surfaces where 4 orthostats from the tomb had been dumped and covered over this poorly preserved house was constructed. Only a portion (dims 5.25m x 3.5m)of its paved floor with its hearth survived but its W edge was damaged by the construction of the souterrain. (Eogan and Byrne 1968, 354-65; Eogan 1974, 87-111; Eogan 2012, 92-5)

True location: ITM 699574, 773443

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 26 November 2013
Amended: 17 September 2020

See the attached illustrations:
_1 Early medieval features, from Knowth 5, Fig. 4:1
_2 House plan, from Knowth 5, Fig. 4:7

References

Eogan, G. 2012 Excavations at Knowth 5: the archaeology of Knowth in the first and second millennia AD. Dublin. Royal Irish Academy.

Eogan, G. 1974 Report on the excavations of some passage graves, unprotected inhumation burials and a settlement site at Knowth, Co Meath. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 74C, 11 – 112.

Eogan, G. and Byrne, F.J. 1968 Excavations at Knowth, 1962-1965. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 66, 299-400.